Product Review - Savage 110 Pillar Kit from eBay

[Texasflyboy]

I bought this pillar bedding kit off of eBay for my Savage 116 Left Hand in 300 Win Mag. I have the flat rear receiver pre accu trigger version.

Firearm:

Savage Model 116 Left Hand in 300 Win Mag. Black Factory plastic stock.

Parts:

Boyd's replacement thumbhold stock in left hand for Savage 110/116 rifles
eBay Pillar bedding kit for Savage 110 rifles
Several spare 1/4" x 28 tpi socket head bolts (two 4" ones with heads cut off to act as guides in and out of Boyd Stock)
Masking Tape/Putty/Misc bedding items

This was my first attempt at a bedding job and here is the review of the pillar kit only.

Both pillars were easy to fit to the Savage action. The tops of the pillars are contoured to fit the Savage action. They fit nearly perfectly. The rear pillar is notched for the sear but this was insufficient for my rifle. I also had to notch the sear, which I did very very carefully using a dremel cut off wheel.

This is what I used as a guide to notch my sear:

http://www.varminthuntinginternation...20Bedding.html

Instead of a round cut like he did above I made mine like a elongated flat "U" and fitted the sear multiple times until I was sure I would not get interference. I didn't.

After notching the sear, the pillar fit was perfect.

I used several guides for bedding including:

http://www.predatormastersforums.com...Number=1620372

(the above link was by far the most informative)

http://www.savageshooters.com/showth...edding-a-Boyds

http://www.varminthuntinginternation...20Bedding.html

http://www.predatormastersforums.com...Number=1620372

Here are some pics of the pillars attached during one of my dry run test fits:






On to the bedding kit as pictured on eBay:



I give the pillars a 9/10. However, the included epoxy almost ruined my bedding job. I mixed the two part epoxy that came with the kit in a plastic container. I just pushed the dual plunger all the way to the bottom and dumped the entire contents of the binary mix into the cup. I then mixed it with a wooden tongue depressor. It was very liquid. Too liquid to use so I set it aside and started a 1 minute timer that chimes every 1 minute. After 5 chimes, Still liquid. I set it aside for about 3 more minutes and it was a little thicker. So I started applying it to the pillars and the recoil lug area. After I applied it I realized it was still too liquid so I set it aside. I put the cup down and let 6 chimes ring. When I picked the cup up it was very warm and the epoxy had turned from clear to a light yellow and had set in the cup. What was left in the cup was useless. Weirdly, what was on the stock and pillars was still liquid. In a panic I quickly grabbed my super size tubes of JB weld and mixed up a large batch of JB.

I liberally applied the JB over the still liquid clear epoxy and set the action inside the stock. I then wrapped the stock in black electrical tape and started cleaning the epoxy was was oozing out.

I don't know what I did wrong with the two part clear epoxy that came with the pillar kit. I can only assume that it needs to be constantly stirred otherwise it will set, and set rather quickly.

The bedding job worked out well in the end. I separated the action from the stock with a few hammer raps from a rawhide mallet and spent about and hour cleaning up the overflow and bits a pieces. Both pillars set perfectly and I only had a little cleanup to do with the rear pillar to eliminate some sear interference.

I reassembled the trigger group to the action and put the entire rifle back together today. It passed the safety checks 100%.

FYI for the board..

[Blitzfike]

Thanks for the info..

[DSW308]

Sounds like you experienced an exothermic reaction on the epoxy, when making batches of epoxy its ok to have large surface areas quantity wise, but if the depth in say a small cup is like a 1/2" or more it will cookoff so to speak. I usually use a 30 minute type epoxy (sometimes 1-6 hour type), making several small batches in large diameter paper mixing cups with stirring vigorously with tongue depressors to avoid the uncontrolled reaction. Nevertheless, sounds like you were able to achieved what you set out to do in the end so all good...